October 17, 2023 • 47 mins
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Unknown (00:00):
Philippians chapter two, in case you don't know this
by now, at this church, we arecommitted to expository
preaching, you know what thatis? That is verse by verse
preaching. If you start chapterone, verse one, and you work all
the way through the book of theBible, you have to cover all the
subjects, you can't skirt aroundcertain issues. You guys can
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look as though he's not beingvery honest. Now, he's not
telling us the truth, the wholetruth and nothing but the truth,
because he's skipping around andnot really facing at all. It
couldn't be the case. Well,guess what, as we have
persistently been doing this forI can't remember when we started
in Philippians. But whenever westarted this last February,
we've been plodding along, goingthrough Philippians. And we
finished last week up throughverse 18. And I sort of tied in
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verses 1617 and 18, togetherlast week, and we considered
Paul as an example. And one ofthe main things was his motive
of rejoicing, even though hemight die was based upon this
fact, the fact that he was goingto answer before God, the Bema
Seat, in fact, look at verse 16.
And it says this, as you holdout the word of life. Now notice
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verse 16, in order that I mayboast on the day of Christ, that
I did not run or labor fornothing. Now, clearly, that
meant something to me. But Iunderstood from the comments
that came back after last week'smessage, I've never heard more
comments in my entire life ofpeople that were confused. If
usually, if you hear one or two,that means there's 10, or it's
like seeing a rat, if you seeone, you know, there's 10 there.
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Well, if you have one personthat's confused, I'm not
comparing the confused people torats, by the way, but if you
had, if you had one personthat's confused, it usually
means there's a lot why I hadfive or six people come up to
me, I also had a few people comeup to me said, Hey, that was the
best matches I've ever heard. Idon't understand quite what the
difference was. But I do knowthis. I want to take heed as a
pastor to make sure you knowwhat we're talking about, and
lead you into light and out inthe darkness and help you
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understand truth and not beconfused by it. And so people
said things to me like this,Hey, I want to be misete my
concordance and couldn't find itonce and you kept talking about
it through the whole Bible. Whatare you talking about this? I
don't understand what you'resaying? Well, for this reason,
and because of the urgent needthat Every Christian Needs to
understand the Bema judgment andthe Great White Throne Judgment.
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I'm diverting this Sunday andnext Sunday, to a study of the
great white throne in the BemaSeat judgment. Now it ties in
really because a verse 16 Paulsays, His goal is that on the
day of Christ, when He has togive an answer to Christ, He
will have been rewarded byPhilippians growth. But think of
this people make a big dealtoday about proper motivation in
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the Christian life. Isn't thatthe truth? Everyone says, Hey,
you got to be properlymotivated. I've heard many
people I have a good friendDave, he constantly talks about,
I got to make sure I have theright motivation. Well, you
know, that is true. In fact,I've heard people say this,
don't serve God. legalistically.
But serve God because you lovehim. Now, how many of you think
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that's true? I do. So good tohelp you a little bit. Some of
you still don't think that'strue. So you serve God.
legalistically Go ahead. But thefact is, we are supposed to
serve God because we love him.
We're supposed to serve God,because all of his gracious
provision for us in ChristJesus, all that he has done for
us. We're supposed to out ofgrateful hearts with
thanksgiving, serve him right.
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We're about another motive.
We're supposed to serve Himbecause we fear him. Isn't that
true? The New Testament clearlyteaches that there has to be a
fear of God in our hearts. Whatis that our reverential all our
respect for God. So on one hand,we love them. On the other hand,
we fear them. What are someother things that people say?
Well, make sure your heart isright. Don't do the ministry for
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selfish gain, but for the gloryof God, the dada. But I want to
ask you this. When's the lasttime you ever heard someone say
this? I want to serve God and mymotive is there I would receive
a reward at the Bema Seat.
Have you ever heard someone saythat? Well, you know what? Last
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week, that's what Paul said inverse 16. Look what it says in
verse 16. He says, As you holdup the word of life, that I may
boast on the day of Christ thatI did not run or labor for
nothing. There isn't thatinteresting. If you turn to
First Corinthians chapter nine,verses 24 through 27, you would
find this, you would find Paulsay, I beat my body, I keep it
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under subjection, I work as hardas I possibly can at discipline
in my life, guess why? So that Ican receive an incorruptible
crown, and it gives usillustration, the Olympic
athletes, they do so they couldreceive a corruptible crown or
they would get a refund, itwould perish, but I do it so
that I can receive anincorruptible crown. He says in
Second Timothy, chapter four, Ihave fought a good fight. I have
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kept the faith I have finishedthe course. And henceforth there
is later for me a crown ofrighteousness. In fact, I want
to tell you something. I am soamazed at how much the Bible
talks about doing things nowwith your mode of being that you
would get a reward then it wasoverwhelming. Paul's major if I
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had to say his major motivationwould be that he would give an
So before God, is he motivatedout of love? Absolutely, yes. He
says, the love of Christconstrained us. Is he motivated
out of fear? Yes, he talks oftenabout fear of God. But the thing
that motivated him the most, Ithink, as you study all of his
writings is this idea that hewould give an answer before God
at the Bema Seat one day. Nowthink when the second if you
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know, the future, you makedecisions based on that fact. It
was just four years ago, that Iwent over to Rob's house, on a
Monday night, in April, earlyApril to watch Indiana
University, play Syracuse, forthe national championship. And
all of us were gathered aroundthe TV, and we are excited. And
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with eight minutes to go in thatgame, Syracuse had an eight
point lead. And I'm gonna tellyou something, my stomach was
doing flip flops. I was forIndiana. And she picked one
though. And I was like, come on,come on national TV. And all
this, for the national title iswhat we've been dreaming up. I'd
watched every game I possiblycould that year, I would even
schedule sometimes counselingaround the IU games during that
year. So I can see if I can atleast catch the second half of
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them. And I was I was so excitedabout that. But with eight
minutes to go, Oh, I was sonervous. And then the Syracuse
had the ball with like 30seconds to go, we're shooting
the free throw with a one pointlead as well. And I was
thinking, oh, man, if you mixwith this, we're down three,
then only a three point Ah, hemisses we get the ball, we score
they forget to call timeout.
There's one second left, we endup winning 7473. And you know,
all you do, don't you, you know,see, this sermon wouldn't go
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over and another state wouldhave to only go in Indiana.
Well, guess what, a couple ofmonths later, somebody invited
me over to watch the replay ofthat game.
And I went over to their houseand watched it. Guess what? I
wasn't nervous at all. Eightminutes to go. I was thinking
this is gonna be great. I wantto see how they come back. I
forgot about it. I know they'regonna win. You've heard about a
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guy that lost all the moneybetting on the replay. He said,
Oh, there's no way they'll dothat again.
But you see, I understood yousee, I understood this. I
already knew the future. As Iwas watching that game. I knew I
was going to happen whenKeySmart whenever the jump shot
from the quarter, it was theirbaby for that goal. But I knew
there wasn't any anxiety, myheart like there was the first
time the first time he did thatwas the second time he hit it
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was just a big deal. You know,he made it. Why? Because the
future, knowing the future makesa difference. Now listen, my
friends, if we know the end ofthe story, if we understand how
history is going to culminate,if we understand that we will
give account of ourselves beforeGod and understand clearly what
that's going to involve. Itought to make a difference in
the way we live. Just likeknowing our beginning makes a
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difference in the way we live.
You know, I really think thatone of the reasons we're so
impotent in Christianity Today,in our Christian life is this.
We don't consider Genesis one,two and three. You know, Genesis
123 tells us how we got here,why we are here, what we are
here for, it gives you aphilosophy of life. If you want
to get a philosophy of life,study the first 11 chapters of
Genesis, it tells you ourbeginnings or roots, why we're
here now listen, so should theSecond Coming and the judgment
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of Christ. So should be the endof all things. Those are the two
things that dominate the life ofbelievers, we ought to be
thinking, we've been created bya personal God has a purpose for
our existence, and we're here togive glory to Him. And we are
going to give an answer to himone day, they are a very, very
much affect us. But you knowwhat I find? Listen, friends, I
find that talk about the secondcoming of Christ. Talk about his
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judgment in particular, usually,you get negative vibes from
people. Most people sort ofscratch off their shoulders, and
they don't want to hear aboutthis. Why? Well, I think there
are several reasons, the worstof which is the attitude that
preachers have had is they havepreached on the subject of
judgment. First off, when mostpeople have preached on judgment
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that you've heard, it's usuallybeen with anger, whatever
they're gonna get is gonna getyou if you don't repent.
And also, it's always beendirected to unbelievers.
It hasn't been directed tobelievers. And you know, that a
tremendous amount of NewTestament teaching on judgment
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is directed to believers, aswell as unbelievers.
It has to be a strong motivationin our life. Another reason why
we have a negative test is weall hate test evaluation, don't
you? Remember tests? Rememberthe night before the big test?
Or how about when you getevaluated at work, and your boss
calls you and there's all youhave to admit, there's just a in
the pit of your stomach, thislittle wonder what he's going to
say is really going to be good.
And so we have this negativeattitude towards that. But when
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it comes to this, this wholeidea of judgment, I want to ask
you this one question. Don'tanswer just just make it make
you think, is heaven going to bethe same for everyone?
Let me ask you, this is hellgoing to be the same for
everyone?
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If you don't really know that'sone of the things that sermon is
going to do is going to help youyou see if heroin is the same
for everybody, that's what a lotof people think. And by the way,
friends, it's not at all goingto be the same for everybody.
There's somebody who had thisidea oh, I'm just gonna take off
my crown so to speak, and thenwe'll all be the same flopping
around like this, you know, inthis great crown him and many
crowns in some kind of boringbeliefs.
No going around our back throughus. Or we think about hell, they
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say there's all sin of sincan be the same.
I want you to consider clearlywhat happens
at the great judgment. And Iwant you notice a couple of
things. Number one, let me havethe two first two lights there,
please. The middle two lights,the middle two. Yeah, thank you.
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Please only notice this. Thereare two main judgments. One is
for unbelievers, and it's calledthe Great White Throne. And one
is for believers. It's calledthe Bema Seat. Now, there's many
more scriptures than this, butI'm just giving you a couple for
you to noticethat please note the difference.
You can read about one look atthe both of the look of all
these scriptures here in alittle bit. Notice the subjects.
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One is for believers. One is forunbelievers that is anyone not
found in the book of life. Look,you're next the purpose, the
purpose, very important that youunderstand this, the Bema seats,
purpose is reward or loss ofreward, not heaven. Or hell, if
you're at the Bema Seat is forbelievers, so you don't get
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judged to go to hell, you getjudged according to the level of
reward for the kind of life youhave lived in this life. The
great white throne is punishmentand degrees of punishment.
Now, I will prove that to you,by the way to prove both of
those to you notice the destiny,the destiny is that heaven and
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hell. Now chi 316 says it's thebook of remembrance, while
revelation 2012 says it's a bookof works, when which God will
will judge your life now, I'llleave it there just for a second
if you if you want to considerthat a little bit more. Also, I
get these notes to you ifanybody wants them afterwards.
But please consider this twoclear judgments, one for
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believers, one for unbelievers,they may occur at the same time,
there's argument about when thetime is gonna come and probably
everybody has got a differentopinion on it. But I will say
this.
A lot of Scripture seems to linkthem two together. But clearly
one is for believers has to dowith reward or loss of reward.
One is concerning going to helland the level of degree of
punishment you'll receive as yougo to hell. Now, with that in
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mind, I want you to see the nextthing. And that is this. What
actually happens when someonedies? A lot of people I would
want to answer this, BruceWilkinson said this, I want to
nine years of Bible collegesseminary. And if someone would
have told me what exactlyhappens when I die, I would know
he came up with this outline. Iwant to share it with you he
calls it seven stages of man'seternity, I want you to see the
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very first one and that is thisphysical termination. Now that's
a good term. You know what thatmeans? That means you die, okay?
You and You choke, you're gone,okay, forever, as far as
physically living in this life.
And first is that notice somescripture that would support
this, you can write thesescriptures down, you can look it
up, I want you to especiallynotice is one two and five.
Hebrews 927 says this, it isappointed on demand wants to
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die.
In what next? And after this,the judgment. So look, you die.
The next thing that happened isgoing to be your terminated
Genesis 319. You know what thathas to do with? It says from the
dust you were made to the dustyou shall return. I told the
story in the first service. Iwas doing my first funeral
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service in rural Ohio. And I wasscared to death. I'd never done
a funeral service. No one evertaught me how to do a funeral
service. I was I had theslightest clue what you're
supposed to do. I didn't evenknow this person. And I did this
funeral service. And then I gotinto the hearse afterwards, the
guy said are you gonna ride thehearse? Are you gonna come with
me? And I said, Well, what do Ido now? I didn't know I was
supposed to go out to thegravesite. He goes Oh, yeah,
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you're supposed to walk ahead ofthe casket. So I am. So yeah, he
says then you got to do you knowthe ashes ashes dusted us thing.
I said, I said what is the ashesto ashes dust to dust thing? I
don't know what that is. I haveno clue. But you know what it
was? It was based on Genesis319. It says for the dust you
were made to the dust you shallreturn. Now I was thinking that
I do say Ashes to ashes anddusted us and a lot of the
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funerals that I do now, becausethat's what the Scripture
teaches, you're gonna die. Ifyou want to jet definition of
death, you could put down James226. You know what that is? As
the body without the spirit isdead. So faith without works is
dead. The definition of death isthis when your body no longer
has your spirit in it, you'redead. You've choked, you're
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gone. But the fact is, is thisNothing ends when you're dead.
You just move to a new placeinto a new realm. These
scriptures are for you to lookat. We can get you copies of
this. But the next thing I wantyou to see is this the judgment
of faith and mean really whenyou die. And by the way, all of
these stages just happeninstantaneously. one through
four, especially boom just likethat when you die. The first
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thing that happens is this ifyou have trusted Christ for your
salvation and repented of yoursins, you go to be with him. If
you haven't, you are condemnedand you go to a holding place
called Hades, which will be helduntil there was a resurrection
in whichThen we'll be coming for the
great white throne to be judgedat that resurrection. These
different scriptures teachdifferent things. For instance,
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John 823. And 24 says, Unlessyou believe that I am He, you
shall die in your since John316, For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begottenSon that whosoever believes in
Him should not perish but haveeverlasting life. But then it
goes on to say he'll believe notas condemned already, for the
wrath of God abides upon him.
And so clearly the Scripture is,is teaching that the third thing
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that happens, I want you tonotice this is spirit
relocation. And remember, thesetie together very well, with
Amin instantaneously. But thethird thing that happens is this
immediately when you die, ifyou're a Christian, your spirit
goes to be with the Lord, thereal you, your body goes to the
grave, the real you goes to bewith the Lord. For instance,
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Luke 2343, Jesus Christ istalking to the thief on the
cross. And the thief on thecross says, I believe it makes
that you know, remember me,Lord, and he says to the thief
on the cross, today, you will bewith Me in Paradise. What does
that mean? Hey, you're about todie, but you will, you will be
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with Me in Paradise, that isencouraging, isn't it? The thief
was gonna die. SecondCorinthians five, a God that
says, To be absent from the bodyis to be present with the Lord.
Now, do we need to make that anymore clear than that? If you are
absent from the body, you arepresent with the Lord, if you're
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a Christian, how aboutPhilippians you're in
Philippians. Go back to chapterone. And look at this passage
that we looked at several weeksago. But Philippians chapter
one, and look with me down theverse
21 It says this, For me to liveas Christ and to die is gain. If
I am to go on living in thisbody, this will mean fruitful
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labor for me. Yet what shall Ichoose? I do not know that
please get verse 23. I am tornbetween the two. I desire to
depart and to be with Christ,which is better by far, but it's
more necessary for you that Iremain in the body you get down,
he is about to depart or be withChrist. That's where the real me
the spirit of what's real you.
If you look at someone if you'veever looked upon a corpse, one
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reason you could tell it's acorpse is by the look in their
eyes, the real vam is gone.
And the Bible says instantly,that he was Lord. Now, there is
not much refer to something thatsort of started me in doing this
study is this. You find a versein the New Testament that says
if you're an unbeliever, youdie, you immediately go to hell,
you don't find it. It's notthere. It says, Here, there was
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a rich man and Lazarus. The richman was not a believer. Lazarus
was a believer. Lazarus died andwent to paradise. The rich man
died and went to Hades. And inHades, he was in torment, and he
was thirsty. And he was he was,he was in all kinds of trouble.
He could see here and talk buthe was all kinds of trouble. But
the Bible teaches there's aplace called hades in which the
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body the spirit will go a placeof torment and tell the
resurrection. So do youunderstand their spirit, spirit
relocation. And this basicallyteaches this, where your spirit
relocates is where you willspend your eternal destiny after
you go through a judgment.
Please understand that, whileyour spirit relocates when you
die, if you die here with theLord, you will be with the Lord
forever. If you die, and you goto Hades, you will be away from
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the Lord forever. But first youhave to stand judgment. And
there's some scriptures therefor you, which I for the sake of
time, I don't want to spend toomuch time but then what happens
is this, then there is aresurrection. And only this
resurrection. I want you to turnthe John chapter five and see
this passage with me. And pleasework hard on this John chapter
five, and turn over therequickly. And you'll see the
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Scripture referring now to theresurrection.
Jesus says in John chapter five,starting with verse 28, he says,
Do not be amazed this for a timeis coming, what all who are in
their graves will hear His voiceand come out. Those who have
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done good will rise to live andthose who have done evil will
arise to be condemned.
Now, clearly, there is aresurrection. First Corinthians
15 talks about the resurrectionfor the Christian. Revelation
2013 talks about theresurrection for the non
Christian. First Thessalonianstalks about the resurrection for
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the Christian and so does FirstCorinthians 15 There is a day
you see when you die, yourspirit if you're a Christian
goes to be with the Lord, yourbody goes to the grave. But when
Jesus Christ comes back, thereis a resurrection and your body
and your spiritual new body.
Your incorruptible body is whatFirst Corinthians 13 is talking
about is reunited with yourSpirit and you live for eternity
will resurrected incorruptiblebody. It With Your unbeliever,
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your body is raised. Your spiritis raised out of Hades, your
body is raised out of the grave.
And you then stand before God inthat body to be condemned to the
Great White Throne Judgment andthen to
To cast into hell so clearlyNext, there is a resurrection.
The next thing I want you to seeon this passage, and by the way,
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don't believe me if it's notthere in the Scriptures, the
know believe it. But the nextthing I want you to see is this.
The sixth stage is the judgment.
So now here you are, the policeget this. If you're a Christian,
you've died. Your body has goneto the grave, your spirit has
gone to be the Lord, and you'rewaiting, the resurrection at the
resurrection, they come backtogether, and then you judge, if
you're a non Christian, you'vedied. Your Spirit has gone to
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Hades, you have gone to thegrave at the resurrection, your
spirit and your body reunite,and you will be judged before
God at the Great White ThroneJudgment. Now, notice this, you
will be judged according yourphysical body, Matthew 12. Let's
go. Let's go to secondCorinthians chapter five. Go
over with me the secondCorinthians chapter five. To see
this. I'm hoping that I ammaking this clear for you not
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unclear. I hoping that you'regoing to build an understanding
of this. And if not moreconfused, but go with me the
second Corinthians chapter fiveand start with verse six. Second
Corinthians chapter five, westart with verse six.
He says, as you'll be judged,look at what it says here.
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He says, Forget six. Let's godown to verse 10, which is get
to the point four, we must allappear before the judgment seat
of Christ. That by the way, inthe Greek, it reads like this
where we must all appear beforethe Bema of Christ. That's where
we get Bema Seat for those ofyou that asked that question.
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It's right here. It's also inRomans 14. And it's also applied
several times the book of Acts,and other places. But we must
all get this we must all appearbefore the Bema Seat of Christ
that each one may receive whatis due Him for things done while
in the body, whether good orbad. Now, by the way, if you
want to know if this was somenegative experience for Paul, it
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wasn't a negative experience.
You can read about it in versesix. Look at verse six says,
Therefore we're always confidentand know that as long as we are
harming the body, we are awayfrom the Lord. We live by faith,
not by sight. As long as we'rein this world. We are confident
I say and would prefer to beaway from the body, be home with
the Lord, hey, he looked forwardto being with the Lord. You see,
he was confident that he wouldbe with the Lord you see this
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confidence the resurrection ofChrist the fact of judgment was
not something with Paul aroundlike this. Oh me ally. No, he
was looking forward to it was amotivation to his life it should
be in our life. It shouldmotivate us to do good and not
evil. Romans 14 says this youjudgmental person, you got to
stop being judgmental, becauseyou're gonna be judged the Bema
Seat and the word Bemis downthere in Romans 14, First
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Corinthians four, four and five,guess what it says, at that time
each man will receive Guesswhat? His praise from God, His
praise from God, Paul sort ofcapsule eights or capitalizes
the whole idea here by sayingthis, it's going to be a time of
praise at the Bema Seat, as wewere given a reward. Matthew
1234 through 37. Look that upsome time, but along with this
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idea of judgment comes personalcompensation. Now to really see
this, I want you to go to FirstCorinthians and see with me
chapter three. But firstCorinthians
by the way, I hope you see I'mnot interested in espousing my
own opinions, but just don't tryto teach what the scripture
says. People often ignorant ofreally what the scripture says
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when we get our own ideas outahead of ourselves. Now, look
here, First Corinthians chapterthree.
Starting with thethe verse 10. This is the
clearest, most most definedteaching on the Bema Seat that
there is, are you with me? Herewe are the most clear defying
teaching on the BBC, if you wantto know what the BBC will be
like, it's going to be personalcompensation, that please get
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this. For the by the grace ofGod, probably the grace God has
given me first Corinthians 310.
I laid a foundation as an expertbuilder in someone else's
building on it, but each oneshould be careful how he builds,
for no one can lay anyfoundation other than the one
already laid, which is JesusChrist. You see the foundation
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to get to the Bema Seat is JesusChrist. There's no other person
to get there through except Him.
Verse 12, If any man builds onthis foundation, using gold,
silver, costly stones, wood, hayor straw, his rock will be shown
for what it is to get it. It'seither going to be gold, silver,
or constantly stones, which whentested by fire become more
valuable, or wood, hay or straw,which if you've put wood, hay or
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straw to the fire, what happens?
Well, you've all figured it out.
Right? It burns up.
So look at verse 13. His workwill be shown for what it is
because that day, no, you seethat? What's the reference to
the Bema? Just like inPhilippians 216. It says the day
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of Christ is a reference to theBema. You got to understand that
that's a eschatological term.
What does that mean? It justmeans it's the last days term,
there's a term referring to thejudgment because the day will
bring itTo light to get this it will be
revealed with fire. And pleaseknow the last part of verse 13.
The fire will test the qualityof each man's work. Believer,
there was a day coming. When youwill stand before Jesus Christ
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the judge, he will look at yourlife and your life will be laid
out before him. All that you'vedone is a believer and the
quality of your Christian life.
What you have done with thetalents that has been given you
will be tested by fire. If thereare gold, precious stones,
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rubies, or whatever the termsare there, those kind of cool,
it will become refined, and morevaluable. If they are wood, hay
and stubble, they will burn up.
But notice, please notice at theBema Seat, you don't go to hell.
Please notice what it says inverse 14. If what he is built
survives, he will receive hisreward. If it is burned up, he
will suffer loss, he himselfwill be saved, but only as one
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escaping through the flames. Yousee, you will be saved even
though your life will notamounted to much for Christ, if
you do get a loss of reward theBema Seat and they'll probably
be some sorrow in your heart. Nodoubt. That's why there's gonna
be weeping in heaven as we know.
Because believers will say whydidn't I believe more by faith?
Why didn't I sacrifice more? Whywas I so determined to be
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comfortable? How come whensomeone tried to rebuke me I got
mad at them and didn't listen,instead of paying attention and
being motivated to change. Didyou see how come and the point
here is this, we will berewarded personal compensation.
By the way, if we went to Romanschapter two and verse five, I
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want you to see something willgo there in a little bit. But
I'll tell you twice, so you'llget it. But Romans two, five
guess what it says is nottalking about the Bema Seat
there. But it's talking aboutthe Great White Throne. And it
says this, you are storing upwrath for yourself for the day
of wrath. And what does thatmean? Well, for the unbeliever,
there's also personalcompensation. Remember this, if
you're a believer, you go to theBema. It's just going to be
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based on reward or loss ofreward. If you're an unbeliever,
you go to the great whitethrone, and your judgment will
be based upon degrees ofpunishment in hell. For
instance, storing up wrathagainst the day of wrath means
this put your sins into a bank.
And the scripture says that forevery person that is living,
only God knows the heart, mancan't judge this. Every time you
sin. It's like putting somemoney in the bank, it gains
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interest and it keeps growingbigger and bigger and bigger and
the day of judgment that will bebrought out before you if you're
an unbeliever. Okay, now, youdid a good job. I think
listening to me, I'll put thisover, just leave the lights off.
I'll we'll put another overheadon there in a second. Please,
let's do a couple of key pointsnow. Okay. All of eternity is
impacted by the way you live.
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You hear me?
All eternity is impacted by theway you live. So many people.
One of the biggest flaws in mosttheology today is thinking that
God rewards and punishes now.
And my friends, there is sometruth to that. But the main
reward, the main judgment willbe then on that day, the day of
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the Bema, or the Great WhiteThrone. You wonder why wicked
man could get away withwickedness for so long? Because
God knows their day is coming.
You want to know why believerswho have been unjustly treated,
and have had all kinds of badthings happen to them? How come
God allows that to happenbecause he knows there's a day
of reward coming. You see myfriends, you've got to see the
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impact theology of the Bema inthe Great White should have upon
your life, it should impacteverything you do, you should
think about it, you should liveas if the BBC were over you
casting a shadow over your life.
Now the dark shadow, but ashadow of direction and
encouragement to realize thatyou'll get an answer someday.
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So let's now consider this. Andthanks for your good attention.
Let's now consider the greatwhite throne judgment. And by
the way, we didn't get to theBema Seat in the first service,
which means we're not going toget to it now. But that's okay.
Because we're gonna have anextensive study just on the beam
on next Sunday. Okay, so lookhere. Let's go there. This is
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interesting, man. I think you'regonna love this. I've been
excited to preach this to you.
Go to Revelation 20 with me andlet's look now at the Great
White Throne Judgment that we'vehad that as introduction
revelation 20.
Let's look at verse 11 through15 and get your Bibles ready
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because we're gonna be turningto some other places too. Let's
read about it. Here. It says inRevelation 20, verse 11. Then I
saw a great white throne. Oh,there was there's our definition
of it right there great whitethrone, and him who was seated
on earth and sky fled from hispresence. There was no place for
them awesomeness in other words,and I saw the dead grain small
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standing before the throne ofthe books were opened, another
book was opened, which is thebook of life. The dead were
judged according to what theyhad done as recorded in the
books. The sea eat up the deadthey were in it and death and
Hades gave up the dead, theywere in them, and each person
was judged according to what hehad done. Then death and Hades
were thrown into the lake offire. The lake of fire is the
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second death. If anyone's namewas not found written in the
book of life, he was thrown intothe lake of fire, you please
notice based on your works, itsays it judged your works, it
says. So right here, each personwas judged according to what he
had done, your works. Now,remember something at the Great
White Throne, people will bestanding there in their sins,
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Jesus Christ has not paid fortheir sins, they're standing
before a holy God. And nowthey're automatically gonna go
to hell because they're theGreat White Throne. But the one
thing I want you to notice it'sgoing to be a degree of
punishment that they willreceive. And some of you are
going, Wait a minute, I thoughtit was the same for everybody. I
remember being taught, oh, yeah,send us a sin. You know, once it
is done, Jason No, no, no, youon the reading your Bible very
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carefully. Because the Bibleclearly teaches there's degrees
of punishment in hell. And theBible clearly teaches one sin is
worse than another. Forinstance, notice the criterion
for non Christians. In otherwords, the punishment will be
based on the following. Here'sthree criterias. By the way,
we're not gonna have time to getthere today. But next week, you
are going to see 14 or 15criterias for reward or loss of
reward at the bmsc judgment.
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This week, three criterias, fora person at the Great White
Throne Judgment for an unsavedperson, for instance, the amount
of truth known and rejected,please turn with me to Matthew
chapter 11. Go back to Matthewchapter 11 with me and your
text, and work hard. Please payattention to this, because this
is extremely interesting andimportant that we understand it.
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Matthew, chapter 11.
And it says, in Verse 20.
The following, please get thisthis is Jesus talking. Then
Jesus began to announce thecities in which most of his
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miracles had been performed,because they do not repent,
won't you you corzan Woe to youBethsaida. If the miracles that
were performed in you had beenperformed in Tyre and Sidon,
they will have repented long agoand sackcloth and ashes. But I
tell you to please get verse 22.
It will be more bearable forTaiwan side Number Day of
Judgment then for you. Why?
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Because so much light had beengiven to those cities that have
that amount of light had beengiven to Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented.
So look at based upon the amountof truth known and rejected the
amount of miracles the amount oftruth given. Let's keep reading,
verse 23, and you compare him,will you be lifted up to the
skies? No, you will go down tothe depths. If the miracles that
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were performed in you had beenperformed in Saddam, it would
have remained to this day. Nowhere's a little interesting
thought friends, also provingthis righteousness, turning and
responding to Truth bringsblessing in this life. You know
why? It stays off judgment ifSaddam would have had those
miracles done to these othercities that had done, they
wouldn't have been consumed withthe raging fire of the Lord,
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they would have remained untilthis day. In other words, they
wouldn't have been judged theway Sodom and Gomorrah was
judged. So it reflects today toDon't forget. But also notice
verse 24. But I tell you that itwill be more bearable for Saddam
on the dam judgment than foryou. But most of my friends,
what we saw from sodomy,a god town full of homosexuals,
wicked people. And guess whathappens? He says it would be
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more bearable for Saddam in theDay of Judgment. In other words,
there's two levels ofpunishment, you got to
understand clearly, there'slevels of punishment. Go back to
the 10th chapter, just onechapter and look on the to the
11th verse.
Look what it says.
Chapter 10 Verse 11, just goback one chapter, whatever town
or village you enter, search forsome more the person their
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status house until you leavethat you enter the home, give it
to your greeting, if the homewas deserving, let your peace
rest on that is not let yourpeace returned to you. If anyone
will not welcome you or listento your words, what's that the
preaching of the Gospel, if theywill listen to your words, shake
the dust off your feet. When youleave that one return, I tell
you the truth it will be morebearable for sowing and Gomorrah
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on the day of judgment for thattown. It's gonna be more
bearable for a group. And Sodomand Gomorrah as they stand
before God of the Great WhiteThrone. And people that had the
apostles go into their towns thegospel preached and they
rejected it.
So you see, clearly the amountof truth has been known, by the
way friends, that's why I wastold this was I was a little
boy, it would be much worse togo to health in the United
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States of America, that it wouldbe to go to hell from some of
the darkest jungles in Africathat have never heard the
gospel.
Because we have had like,permeated around this gospel
teaching radio magazines,Christian bookstores.
All around us. And it was likeshit everywhere. And the degree,
clearly, clearly, man isresponsible for the amount of
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truth and light given to himthat he rejects in the
scriptures. Now, another thingwas this, the kinds of sins you
commit, I bet you some of youdidn't believe this. I used to
not believe it. But it isclearly true that the kinds of
sins you commit, you're inMatthew 10, go to the next
bookmark and go to the 12chapter.
All the people who said, Oh, no,I thought that was the same for
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everybody. I thought sin wassin. No, there are some sin that
is worse than other sin, thekinds of sins you commit. And
let me give you some referencesto this. It says in Mark chapter
12, starting with verse 38.
As he taught, Jesus said, and bythe way, he was coming right
from Jesus's mouth. Watch outfor the teachers of the law.
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They like to walk around inflowing robes and be greeted in
marketplaces, and have the mostimportant seats in the
synagogues in places of honor atbanquets, they devour widows
houses, and for a show makelengthy prayers now, please get
this last part of verse 40. Suchmen will be punished most
severely.
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In other words, one of the worstsins you can ever commit is that
of being a PhariseeI felt one of the reasons I say
to you, not because I'm afraidof losing my salvation, but
because I know how much Godhates it the sin that God seems
to hate if you look at whatJesus Christ said when He came
to earth is Pharisee ism. Andyou know what that is? External
religion only with a heart thatis wicked. What does he say?
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Outwardly? You look likewhitewashed the house ago
whitewashed us, but inwardlyyour way I can't remember how it
goes. But the point is this. Theoutside of the cup looks nice,
but the inside of the cup iscorroded. You come over to my
house to give you something todrink. So Oh, yeah, you look at
there's a beautiful shiny cup.
You go thanks, that person. Whydon't you look in there just
maggots swimming around in it.
Okay, that's the point. If yougot my point. That's what God
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sees God looks upon the heart.
And with the emphasis on theexternal, God absolutely hates
it. He says, such men will bepunished most severely. What
does that say there are rules ofpunishment based upon the kinds
of sins that you commit, youwant to see another reference
today, you're in Mark chapter12. Go back to Mark chapter
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nine.
Go back to Mark chapter nine.
And look at this story. To showyou another illustration
of the kinds of sin you commitdepending gonna make a
difference in the Great WhiteThrone Judgment. Mark chapter
nine, verse 42. And if anyonecauses one of these little ones
who believe in me to sin, itwould be better for him to be
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thrown into the sea with a largemillstone tied around his neck.
If your hand calls you sinKoloff, it's better for you to
analyze name that with two handsto go into hell, where the fire
never goes out. And if your footcauses you to sin cut off, it is
better for you that are likecrippled and have two feet and
be thrown to hell. And if youreye causes you to sin, pluck it
out. It's better for you toenter the kingdom of God with
one eye than have two eyes bethrown to Hell, where the warmth
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does not die in the fire is notquenched. Everyone will be
salted with fire. Why don't weget the point verse 42. Anyone
who causes one of these littleones to send, believe me, who
believe in me to sin, it'd bebetter for him to throw into the
depths of the sea. I'm notexactly sure all of that is
applied here. But I will tellyou this, to cause little
children to sinis going to bring severe
judgment of God upon you.
(38:26):
tie that in with all the childabuse.
With all the wickedness that'sgoing on today, there's a severe
warning from our loving andgracious Lord, it would be
better for you to have amillstone tied about your neck.
The Old Testament says thingslike this, it would better be
for you never to have been born.
Now, friends, if this scaresyou, I may say this good. Maybe
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that's good. Maybe for once wegot to get a little respect.
Maybe we should start to realizethat judgment is severe. Let me
make sure I've mentioned acouple of others Ephesians five,
three through seven andColossians, three, five through
six, say things like this.
So it's things like this, forthe idolatry, the drunkard, the
sexually immoral, and it gives alist of sins like that. It says
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Let no one deceive you withempty words. For because of
these things, the wrath of Godis coming upon the sons of
disobedience.
Let's don't be fooled by all ofthe adultery and all of the
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illegitimate perverted sexthat's going on and casually
talked about on TV and jokedabout and magazines and videos
and all the things that youcould possibly see around you.
Don't you be deceived? Don't letanyone deceive. You don't have
some antinomian coming your wayand say oh, God's God's grace.
It's okay. No, because of suchthings. God's wrath is coming.
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In fact, my friends it's a shameto even speak of those things
which are done by them andsecret.
This is a call back to holinessfriends. It's a call back to
understand that God hates thisand it's right to hate it in
certain scenes are worse thanothers. Let me give you this
logic or justice tells us this.
This week down at the conferenceon Tuesday, I was down to help
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him with the toddlers. And onTuesday, I went up to the Riley
towers with Doug Miller. DougMiller is a member of our
church. He lives the Rileytowers and went over to his
house to study and get somelunch and things like that. We
pulled onto a one way streetdowntown, I don't drive town
downtown a lot. We pulled onto aone way street. And we came up
to the stoplight. And, and wewere sitting there and there's
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four rows across. And I was onthe outside of the front row.
And Doug was sitting theretalking, we've been stopped
about 20 seconds. And he wentlike this. He went the big line
of traffic behind us. He wentlike this. Yeah, the second
street to the right, you turn.
Well, when he went like this, Iwas not paying attention. I
thought he meant the lightturned green. So I went through
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the light. Thing is I didn'teven know it. I wasn't even 20
yards to the light. And on thepole position on the front row
was a motorcycle policeman.
He pulled up behind me so fast.
I hadn't even got through theintersection, his lights were
spinning. And Doug realized thatI went through the red light was
turned around looking like this.
And we were in the jeep with thetop off, you know, so it looked
like some probably some smartaleck kids or something driving
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there, you know? I thought Doug,what are you talking about the
cops going? Why would a cop inmy scene? Like why is he gonna
pull me over? Absolutely. Myintentions were as pure as they
could be. The only thing is Iwas guilty as all get out. You
see, the cop pulls me over. AndI'm gonna sort of I don't know
why I did that I surely didn'tmean to. And you know, he won't.
Yeah, you know, he's heard allthe stories, you know? $55
Guilty $35. Now, let me ask yousomething.
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What do you think I deserve thator not?
I will tell you this. Myintention was pure. God knows
that. But yet I violated thelaw. So I got the penalty. And
obviously he said, If you wantto contest this, you can come to
court such that I go. There'snothing to contest. I ran the
red light even though I didn'tignorance. I was still guilty,
right? But this week in thepaper did you read about the man
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34 years old, that sexuallymolested his two and a half year
old daughter so severely thatshe died in severe pain from an
eruption of her intestines.
And we actually saw the friends.
Let me let me ask you thisquestion. What would you do? If
you found out that I ran astoplight?
And was given a life sentencewith no chance of parole? And
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that guy molested his daughterand she died and he got a $55?
Fine? What would you all do? Youwould all go downtown and you
say unjust?
Because we have a sense ofjustice. We're image bearers. We
all know there's right andwrong. And my point, my friends,
is this. The kinds of sin youcommit Adolf Hitler, Mussolini,
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others, I can't name them allare going to get a worse degree
of punishment in hellthan others.
The number of sins you commit,in case you're wondering about
this, just to give you clearestevidence, I told you I told you,
we'd go there. Go to Romanschapter two. Look with me to
Verse five, would youclearly the Bible teaches this
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too. But because of yourstubbornness, and your
unrepentant heart, you arestoring up wrath against
yourself for the day of God'swrath, storing up wrath. What's
that mean? It means this puttinginto a bank account. Here's the
sinner, the number of sins youcommit, yes, the number of sins
one commits, the Bible says it'slike a bank account when you
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sin. As an unbeliever. You'restoring up wrath against them.
Let me give you anotherillustration. I ran the
stoplight quite innocently thisweek. And yet what happened?
What happens if I do that everyday this week and every day next
month and every day in August,what my license would be taken
away from me and eventually I'dgo to jail, because the number
of my sins start to add upagainst you even in our justice
system. So it is before Godstoring up wrath. People that
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continue to sin, they store upwrath, unbelievers. Now I'm
talking about was we're talkingabout the great white throne
judgment until the day of wrath.
The last point I want you to seeon the Great White Throne is
this how to avoid the GreatWhite Throne Judgment? Well, let
me tell you, there's two ways toavoid the Great White Throne
Judgment. You know that?
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The first way is this. Don'tdie.
If you don't die, you can avoidit. Okay, just a little humor.
Some of you went for it.
The second way to avoid theGreat White Throne Judgment is
this repent of your sins andbelieve in Jesus Christ as your
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personal Savior because theBible says this, there is
therefore now no condemnation tothem that are in Christ Jesus.
There is no judgment from Godthat's going to bring
condemnation upon you, for themthat are in Christ Jesus.
Now I say all that you put thelights there, if you would put
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the lights back on.
I say this to tell you I'm sortof glad we didn't get the Bema
Seat in the first service.
Because I easily we can go 45minutes to an hour next week on
the Bema Seat and just as I gaveyou the three criterion for the
great white throne and give you14 or 15 criterion for the Bema
Seat, but I want you to considera couple of things.
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Daniel Webster said this.
The most important thought Iever had was that of my
individual responsibility toGod.
John Calvin said this, let noman flatter himself on the
ground that in the opinion ofmen, he is reckoned among the
most eminent master builders.
For as soon as the day breaks inhis whole work must go utterly
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for nothing if not approved bythe Lord. One other man said
this.
Those are fools who depend onman's estimation so as to record
it enough to be approved by men.
For that only will the work havepraise and recompense when it
has stood the test of the day.
I want you turn one last place,I want you to see how the Bema
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should affect your life. Thefact of judgment should affect
your life even though we haven'ttalked much about it. I want you
to see it. Go to Hebrews, the11th chapter and I want you to
see something in closing.
It's all I'm telling youfriends, you're going to be
amazed. It's everywhere.
Philippians chapter two, in case you don't know this
by now, at this church, we arecommitted to expository
preaching, you know what thatis? That is verse by verse
preaching. If you start chapterone, verse one, and you work all
the way through the book of theBible, you have to cover all the
subjects, you can't skirt aroundcertain issues. You guys can
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look as though he's not beingvery honest. Now, he's not
telling us the truth, the wholetruth and nothing but the truth,
because he's skipping around andnot really facing at all. It
couldn't be the case. Well,guess what, as we have
persistently been doing this forI can't remember when we started
in Philippians. But whenever westarted this last February,
we've been plodding along, goingthrough Philippians. And we
finished last week up throughverse 18. And I sort of tied in
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verses 1617 and 18, togetherlast week, and we considered
Paul as an example. And one ofthe main things was his motive
of rejoicing, even though hemight die was based upon this
fact, the fact that he was goingto answer before God, the Bema
Seat, in fact, look at verse 16.
And it says this, as you holdout the word of life. Now notice
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verse 16, in order that I mayboast on the day of Christ, that
I did not run or labor fornothing. Now, clearly, that
meant something to me. But Iunderstood from the comments
that came back after last week'smessage, I've never heard more
comments in my entire life ofpeople that were confused. If
usually, if you hear one or two,that means there's 10, or it's
like seeing a rat, if you seeone, you know, there's 10 there.
(01:22):
Well, if you have one personthat's confused, I'm not
comparing the confused people torats, by the way, but if you
had, if you had one personthat's confused, it usually
means there's a lot why I hadfive or six people come up to
me, I also had a few people comeup to me said, Hey, that was the
best matches I've ever heard. Idon't understand quite what the
difference was. But I do knowthis. I want to take heed as a
pastor to make sure you knowwhat we're talking about, and
lead you into light and out inthe darkness and help you
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understand truth and not beconfused by it. And so people
said things to me like this,Hey, I want to be misete my
concordance and couldn't find itonce and you kept talking about
it through the whole Bible. Whatare you talking about this? I
don't understand what you'resaying? Well, for this reason,
and because of the urgent needthat Every Christian Needs to
understand the Bema judgment andthe Great White Throne Judgment.
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I'm diverting this Sunday andnext Sunday, to a study of the
great white throne in the BemaSeat judgment. Now it ties in
really because a verse 16 Paulsays, His goal is that on the
day of Christ, when He has togive an answer to Christ, He
will have been rewarded byPhilippians growth. But think of
this people make a big dealtoday about proper motivation in
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the Christian life. Isn't thatthe truth? Everyone says, Hey,
you got to be properlymotivated. I've heard many
people I have a good friendDave, he constantly talks about,
I got to make sure I have theright motivation. Well, you
know, that is true. In fact,I've heard people say this,
don't serve God. legalistically.
But serve God because you lovehim. Now, how many of you think
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that's true? I do. So good tohelp you a little bit. Some of
you still don't think that'strue. So you serve God.
legalistically Go ahead. But thefact is, we are supposed to
serve God because we love him.
We're supposed to serve God,because all of his gracious
provision for us in ChristJesus, all that he has done for
us. We're supposed to out ofgrateful hearts with
thanksgiving, serve him right.
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We're about another motive.
We're supposed to serve Himbecause we fear him. Isn't that
true? The New Testament clearlyteaches that there has to be a
fear of God in our hearts. Whatis that our reverential all our
respect for God. So on one hand,we love them. On the other hand,
we fear them. What are someother things that people say?
Well, make sure your heart isright. Don't do the ministry for
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selfish gain, but for the gloryof God, the dada. But I want to
ask you this. When's the lasttime you ever heard someone say
this? I want to serve God and mymotive is there I would receive
a reward at the Bema Seat.
Have you ever heard someone saythat? Well, you know what? Last
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week, that's what Paul said inverse 16. Look what it says in
verse 16. He says, As you holdup the word of life, that I may
boast on the day of Christ thatI did not run or labor for
nothing. There isn't thatinteresting. If you turn to
First Corinthians chapter nine,verses 24 through 27, you would
find this, you would find Paulsay, I beat my body, I keep it
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under subjection, I work as hardas I possibly can at discipline
in my life, guess why? So that Ican receive an incorruptible
crown, and it gives usillustration, the Olympic
athletes, they do so they couldreceive a corruptible crown or
they would get a refund, itwould perish, but I do it so
that I can receive anincorruptible crown. He says in
Second Timothy, chapter four, Ihave fought a good fight. I have
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kept the faith I have finishedthe course. And henceforth there
is later for me a crown ofrighteousness. In fact, I want
to tell you something. I am soamazed at how much the Bible
talks about doing things nowwith your mode of being that you
would get a reward then it wasoverwhelming. Paul's major if I
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had to say his major motivationwould be that he would give an
So before God, is he motivatedout of love? Absolutely, yes. He
says, the love of Christconstrained us. Is he motivated
out of fear? Yes, he talks oftenabout fear of God. But the thing
that motivated him the most, Ithink, as you study all of his
writings is this idea that hewould give an answer before God
at the Bema Seat one day. Nowthink when the second if you
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know, the future, you makedecisions based on that fact. It
was just four years ago, that Iwent over to Rob's house, on a
Monday night, in April, earlyApril to watch Indiana
University, play Syracuse, forthe national championship. And
all of us were gathered aroundthe TV, and we are excited. And
(05:37):
with eight minutes to go in thatgame, Syracuse had an eight
point lead. And I'm gonna tellyou something, my stomach was
doing flip flops. I was forIndiana. And she picked one
though. And I was like, come on,come on national TV. And all
this, for the national title iswhat we've been dreaming up. I'd
watched every game I possiblycould that year, I would even
schedule sometimes counselingaround the IU games during that
year. So I can see if I can atleast catch the second half of
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them. And I was I was so excitedabout that. But with eight
minutes to go, Oh, I was sonervous. And then the Syracuse
had the ball with like 30seconds to go, we're shooting
the free throw with a one pointlead as well. And I was
thinking, oh, man, if you mixwith this, we're down three,
then only a three point Ah, hemisses we get the ball, we score
they forget to call timeout.
There's one second left, we endup winning 7473. And you know,
all you do, don't you, you know,see, this sermon wouldn't go
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over and another state wouldhave to only go in Indiana.
Well, guess what, a couple ofmonths later, somebody invited
me over to watch the replay ofthat game.
And I went over to their houseand watched it. Guess what? I
wasn't nervous at all. Eightminutes to go. I was thinking
this is gonna be great. I wantto see how they come back. I
forgot about it. I know they'regonna win. You've heard about a
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guy that lost all the moneybetting on the replay. He said,
Oh, there's no way they'll dothat again.
But you see, I understood yousee, I understood this. I
already knew the future. As Iwas watching that game. I knew I
was going to happen whenKeySmart whenever the jump shot
from the quarter, it was theirbaby for that goal. But I knew
there wasn't any anxiety, myheart like there was the first
time the first time he did thatwas the second time he hit it
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was just a big deal. You know,he made it. Why? Because the
future, knowing the future makesa difference. Now listen, my
friends, if we know the end ofthe story, if we understand how
history is going to culminate,if we understand that we will
give account of ourselves beforeGod and understand clearly what
that's going to involve. Itought to make a difference in
the way we live. Just likeknowing our beginning makes a
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difference in the way we live.
You know, I really think thatone of the reasons we're so
impotent in Christianity Today,in our Christian life is this.
We don't consider Genesis one,two and three. You know, Genesis
123 tells us how we got here,why we are here, what we are
here for, it gives you aphilosophy of life. If you want
to get a philosophy of life,study the first 11 chapters of
Genesis, it tells you ourbeginnings or roots, why we're
here now listen, so should theSecond Coming and the judgment
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of Christ. So should be the endof all things. Those are the two
things that dominate the life ofbelievers, we ought to be
thinking, we've been created bya personal God has a purpose for
our existence, and we're here togive glory to Him. And we are
going to give an answer to himone day, they are a very, very
much affect us. But you knowwhat I find? Listen, friends, I
find that talk about the secondcoming of Christ. Talk about his
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judgment in particular, usually,you get negative vibes from
people. Most people sort ofscratch off their shoulders, and
they don't want to hear aboutthis. Why? Well, I think there
are several reasons, the worstof which is the attitude that
preachers have had is they havepreached on the subject of
judgment. First off, when mostpeople have preached on judgment
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that you've heard, it's usuallybeen with anger, whatever
they're gonna get is gonna getyou if you don't repent.
And also, it's always beendirected to unbelievers.
It hasn't been directed tobelievers. And you know, that a
tremendous amount of NewTestament teaching on judgment
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is directed to believers, aswell as unbelievers.
It has to be a strong motivationin our life. Another reason why
we have a negative test is weall hate test evaluation, don't
you? Remember tests? Rememberthe night before the big test?
Or how about when you getevaluated at work, and your boss
calls you and there's all youhave to admit, there's just a in
the pit of your stomach, thislittle wonder what he's going to
say is really going to be good.
And so we have this negativeattitude towards that. But when
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it comes to this, this wholeidea of judgment, I want to ask
you this one question. Don'tanswer just just make it make
you think, is heaven going to bethe same for everyone?
Let me ask you, this is hellgoing to be the same for
everyone?
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If you don't really know that'sone of the things that sermon is
going to do is going to help youyou see if heroin is the same
for everybody, that's what a lotof people think. And by the way,
friends, it's not at all goingto be the same for everybody.
There's somebody who had thisidea oh, I'm just gonna take off
my crown so to speak, and thenwe'll all be the same flopping
around like this, you know, inthis great crown him and many
crowns in some kind of boringbeliefs.
No going around our back throughus. Or we think about hell, they
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say there's all sin of sincan be the same.
I want you to consider clearlywhat happens
at the great judgment. And Iwant you notice a couple of
things. Number one, let me havethe two first two lights there,
please. The middle two lights,the middle two. Yeah, thank you.
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Please only notice this. Thereare two main judgments. One is
for unbelievers, and it's calledthe Great White Throne. And one
is for believers. It's calledthe Bema Seat. Now, there's many
more scriptures than this, butI'm just giving you a couple for
you to noticethat please note the difference.
You can read about one look atthe both of the look of all
these scriptures here in alittle bit. Notice the subjects.
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One is for believers. One is forunbelievers that is anyone not
found in the book of life. Look,you're next the purpose, the
purpose, very important that youunderstand this, the Bema seats,
purpose is reward or loss ofreward, not heaven. Or hell, if
you're at the Bema Seat is forbelievers, so you don't get
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judged to go to hell, you getjudged according to the level of
reward for the kind of life youhave lived in this life. The
great white throne is punishmentand degrees of punishment.
Now, I will prove that to you,by the way to prove both of
those to you notice the destiny,the destiny is that heaven and
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hell. Now chi 316 says it's thebook of remembrance, while
revelation 2012 says it's a bookof works, when which God will
will judge your life now, I'llleave it there just for a second
if you if you want to considerthat a little bit more. Also, I
get these notes to you ifanybody wants them afterwards.
But please consider this twoclear judgments, one for
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believers, one for unbelievers,they may occur at the same time,
there's argument about when thetime is gonna come and probably
everybody has got a differentopinion on it. But I will say
this.
A lot of Scripture seems to linkthem two together. But clearly
one is for believers has to dowith reward or loss of reward.
One is concerning going to helland the level of degree of
punishment you'll receive as yougo to hell. Now, with that in
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mind, I want you to see the nextthing. And that is this. What
actually happens when someonedies? A lot of people I would
want to answer this, BruceWilkinson said this, I want to
nine years of Bible collegesseminary. And if someone would
have told me what exactlyhappens when I die, I would know
he came up with this outline. Iwant to share it with you he
calls it seven stages of man'seternity, I want you to see the
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very first one and that is thisphysical termination. Now that's
a good term. You know what thatmeans? That means you die, okay?
You and You choke, you're gone,okay, forever, as far as
physically living in this life.
And first is that notice somescripture that would support
this, you can write thesescriptures down, you can look it
up, I want you to especiallynotice is one two and five.
Hebrews 927 says this, it isappointed on demand wants to
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die.
In what next? And after this,the judgment. So look, you die.
The next thing that happened isgoing to be your terminated
Genesis 319. You know what thathas to do with? It says from the
dust you were made to the dustyou shall return. I told the
story in the first service. Iwas doing my first funeral
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service in rural Ohio. And I wasscared to death. I'd never done
a funeral service. No one evertaught me how to do a funeral
service. I was I had theslightest clue what you're
supposed to do. I didn't evenknow this person. And I did this
funeral service. And then I gotinto the hearse afterwards, the
guy said are you gonna ride thehearse? Are you gonna come with
me? And I said, Well, what do Ido now? I didn't know I was
supposed to go out to thegravesite. He goes Oh, yeah,
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you're supposed to walk ahead ofthe casket. So I am. So yeah, he
says then you got to do you knowthe ashes ashes dusted us thing.
I said, I said what is the ashesto ashes dust to dust thing? I
don't know what that is. I haveno clue. But you know what it
was? It was based on Genesis319. It says for the dust you
were made to the dust you shallreturn. Now I was thinking that
I do say Ashes to ashes anddusted us and a lot of the
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funerals that I do now, becausethat's what the Scripture
teaches, you're gonna die. Ifyou want to jet definition of
death, you could put down James226. You know what that is? As
the body without the spirit isdead. So faith without works is
dead. The definition of death isthis when your body no longer
has your spirit in it, you'redead. You've choked, you're
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gone. But the fact is, is thisNothing ends when you're dead.
You just move to a new placeinto a new realm. These
scriptures are for you to lookat. We can get you copies of
this. But the next thing I wantyou to see is this the judgment
of faith and mean really whenyou die. And by the way, all of
these stages just happeninstantaneously. one through
four, especially boom just likethat when you die. The first
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thing that happens is this ifyou have trusted Christ for your
salvation and repented of yoursins, you go to be with him. If
you haven't, you are condemnedand you go to a holding place
called Hades, which will be helduntil there was a resurrection
in whichThen we'll be coming for the
great white throne to be judgedat that resurrection. These
different scriptures teachdifferent things. For instance,
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John 823. And 24 says, Unlessyou believe that I am He, you
shall die in your since John316, For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begottenSon that whosoever believes in
Him should not perish but haveeverlasting life. But then it
goes on to say he'll believe notas condemned already, for the
wrath of God abides upon him.
And so clearly the Scripture is,is teaching that the third thing
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that happens, I want you tonotice this is spirit
relocation. And remember, thesetie together very well, with
Amin instantaneously. But thethird thing that happens is this
immediately when you die, ifyou're a Christian, your spirit
goes to be with the Lord, thereal you, your body goes to the
grave, the real you goes to bewith the Lord. For instance,
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Luke 2343, Jesus Christ istalking to the thief on the
cross. And the thief on thecross says, I believe it makes
that you know, remember me,Lord, and he says to the thief
on the cross, today, you will bewith Me in Paradise. What does
that mean? Hey, you're about todie, but you will, you will be
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with Me in Paradise, that isencouraging, isn't it? The thief
was gonna die. SecondCorinthians five, a God that
says, To be absent from the bodyis to be present with the Lord.
Now, do we need to make that anymore clear than that? If you are
absent from the body, you arepresent with the Lord, if you're
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a Christian, how aboutPhilippians you're in
Philippians. Go back to chapterone. And look at this passage
that we looked at several weeksago. But Philippians chapter
one, and look with me down theverse
21 It says this, For me to liveas Christ and to die is gain. If
I am to go on living in thisbody, this will mean fruitful
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labor for me. Yet what shall Ichoose? I do not know that
please get verse 23. I am tornbetween the two. I desire to
depart and to be with Christ,which is better by far, but it's
more necessary for you that Iremain in the body you get down,
he is about to depart or be withChrist. That's where the real me
the spirit of what's real you.
If you look at someone if you'veever looked upon a corpse, one
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reason you could tell it's acorpse is by the look in their
eyes, the real vam is gone.
And the Bible says instantly,that he was Lord. Now, there is
not much refer to something thatsort of started me in doing this
study is this. You find a versein the New Testament that says
if you're an unbeliever, youdie, you immediately go to hell,
you don't find it. It's notthere. It says, Here, there was
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a rich man and Lazarus. The richman was not a believer. Lazarus
was a believer. Lazarus died andwent to paradise. The rich man
died and went to Hades. And inHades, he was in torment, and he
was thirsty. And he was he was,he was in all kinds of trouble.
He could see here and talk buthe was all kinds of trouble. But
the Bible teaches there's aplace called hades in which the
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body the spirit will go a placeof torment and tell the
resurrection. So do youunderstand their spirit, spirit
relocation. And this basicallyteaches this, where your spirit
relocates is where you willspend your eternal destiny after
you go through a judgment.
Please understand that, whileyour spirit relocates when you
die, if you die here with theLord, you will be with the Lord
forever. If you die, and you goto Hades, you will be away from
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the Lord forever. But first youhave to stand judgment. And
there's some scriptures therefor you, which I for the sake of
time, I don't want to spend toomuch time but then what happens
is this, then there is aresurrection. And only this
resurrection. I want you to turnthe John chapter five and see
this passage with me. And pleasework hard on this John chapter
five, and turn over therequickly. And you'll see the
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Scripture referring now to theresurrection.
Jesus says in John chapter five,starting with verse 28, he says,
Do not be amazed this for a timeis coming, what all who are in
their graves will hear His voiceand come out. Those who have
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done good will rise to live andthose who have done evil will
arise to be condemned.
Now, clearly, there is aresurrection. First Corinthians
15 talks about the resurrectionfor the Christian. Revelation
2013 talks about theresurrection for the non
Christian. First Thessalonianstalks about the resurrection for
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the Christian and so does FirstCorinthians 15 There is a day
you see when you die, yourspirit if you're a Christian
goes to be with the Lord, yourbody goes to the grave. But when
Jesus Christ comes back, thereis a resurrection and your body
and your spiritual new body.
Your incorruptible body is whatFirst Corinthians 13 is talking
about is reunited with yourSpirit and you live for eternity
will resurrected incorruptiblebody. It With Your unbeliever,
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your body is raised. Your spiritis raised out of Hades, your
body is raised out of the grave.
And you then stand before God inthat body to be condemned to the
Great White Throne Judgment andthen to
To cast into hell so clearlyNext, there is a resurrection.
The next thing I want you to seeon this passage, and by the way,
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don't believe me if it's notthere in the Scriptures, the
know believe it. But the nextthing I want you to see is this.
The sixth stage is the judgment.
So now here you are, the policeget this. If you're a Christian,
you've died. Your body has goneto the grave, your spirit has
gone to be the Lord, and you'rewaiting, the resurrection at the
resurrection, they come backtogether, and then you judge, if
you're a non Christian, you'vedied. Your Spirit has gone to
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Hades, you have gone to thegrave at the resurrection, your
spirit and your body reunite,and you will be judged before
God at the Great White ThroneJudgment. Now, notice this, you
will be judged according yourphysical body, Matthew 12. Let's
go. Let's go to secondCorinthians chapter five. Go
over with me the secondCorinthians chapter five. To see
this. I'm hoping that I ammaking this clear for you not
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unclear. I hoping that you'regoing to build an understanding
of this. And if not moreconfused, but go with me the
second Corinthians chapter fiveand start with verse six. Second
Corinthians chapter five, westart with verse six.
He says, as you'll be judged,look at what it says here.
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He says, Forget six. Let's godown to verse 10, which is get
to the point four, we must allappear before the judgment seat
of Christ. That by the way, inthe Greek, it reads like this
where we must all appear beforethe Bema of Christ. That's where
we get Bema Seat for those ofyou that asked that question.
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It's right here. It's also inRomans 14. And it's also applied
several times the book of Acts,and other places. But we must
all get this we must all appearbefore the Bema Seat of Christ
that each one may receive whatis due Him for things done while
in the body, whether good orbad. Now, by the way, if you
want to know if this was somenegative experience for Paul, it
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wasn't a negative experience.
You can read about it in versesix. Look at verse six says,
Therefore we're always confidentand know that as long as we are
harming the body, we are awayfrom the Lord. We live by faith,
not by sight. As long as we'rein this world. We are confident
I say and would prefer to beaway from the body, be home with
the Lord, hey, he looked forwardto being with the Lord. You see,
he was confident that he wouldbe with the Lord you see this
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confidence the resurrection ofChrist the fact of judgment was
not something with Paul aroundlike this. Oh me ally. No, he
was looking forward to it was amotivation to his life it should
be in our life. It shouldmotivate us to do good and not
evil. Romans 14 says this youjudgmental person, you got to
stop being judgmental, becauseyou're gonna be judged the Bema
Seat and the word Bemis downthere in Romans 14, First
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Corinthians four, four and five,guess what it says, at that time
each man will receive Guesswhat? His praise from God, His
praise from God, Paul sort ofcapsule eights or capitalizes
the whole idea here by sayingthis, it's going to be a time of
praise at the Bema Seat, as wewere given a reward. Matthew
1234 through 37. Look that upsome time, but along with this
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idea of judgment comes personalcompensation. Now to really see
this, I want you to go to FirstCorinthians and see with me
chapter three. But firstCorinthians
by the way, I hope you see I'mnot interested in espousing my
own opinions, but just don't tryto teach what the scripture
says. People often ignorant ofreally what the scripture says
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when we get our own ideas outahead of ourselves. Now, look
here, First Corinthians chapterthree.
Starting with thethe verse 10. This is the
clearest, most most definedteaching on the Bema Seat that
there is, are you with me? Herewe are the most clear defying
teaching on the BBC, if you wantto know what the BBC will be
like, it's going to be personalcompensation, that please get
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this. For the by the grace ofGod, probably the grace God has
given me first Corinthians 310.
I laid a foundation as an expertbuilder in someone else's
building on it, but each oneshould be careful how he builds,
for no one can lay anyfoundation other than the one
already laid, which is JesusChrist. You see the foundation
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to get to the Bema Seat is JesusChrist. There's no other person
to get there through except Him.
Verse 12, If any man builds onthis foundation, using gold,
silver, costly stones, wood, hayor straw, his rock will be shown
for what it is to get it. It'seither going to be gold, silver,
or constantly stones, which whentested by fire become more
valuable, or wood, hay or straw,which if you've put wood, hay or
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straw to the fire, what happens?
Well, you've all figured it out.
Right? It burns up.
So look at verse 13. His workwill be shown for what it is
because that day, no, you seethat? What's the reference to
the Bema? Just like inPhilippians 216. It says the day
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of Christ is a reference to theBema. You got to understand that
that's a eschatological term.
What does that mean? It justmeans it's the last days term,
there's a term referring to thejudgment because the day will
bring itTo light to get this it will be
revealed with fire. And pleaseknow the last part of verse 13.
The fire will test the qualityof each man's work. Believer,
there was a day coming. When youwill stand before Jesus Christ
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the judge, he will look at yourlife and your life will be laid
out before him. All that you'vedone is a believer and the
quality of your Christian life.
What you have done with thetalents that has been given you
will be tested by fire. If thereare gold, precious stones,
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rubies, or whatever the termsare there, those kind of cool,
it will become refined, and morevaluable. If they are wood, hay
and stubble, they will burn up.
But notice, please notice at theBema Seat, you don't go to hell.
Please notice what it says inverse 14. If what he is built
survives, he will receive hisreward. If it is burned up, he
will suffer loss, he himselfwill be saved, but only as one
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escaping through the flames. Yousee, you will be saved even
though your life will notamounted to much for Christ, if
you do get a loss of reward theBema Seat and they'll probably
be some sorrow in your heart. Nodoubt. That's why there's gonna
be weeping in heaven as we know.
Because believers will say whydidn't I believe more by faith?
Why didn't I sacrifice more? Whywas I so determined to be
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comfortable? How come whensomeone tried to rebuke me I got
mad at them and didn't listen,instead of paying attention and
being motivated to change. Didyou see how come and the point
here is this, we will berewarded personal compensation.
By the way, if we went to Romanschapter two and verse five, I
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want you to see something willgo there in a little bit. But
I'll tell you twice, so you'llget it. But Romans two, five
guess what it says is nottalking about the Bema Seat
there. But it's talking aboutthe Great White Throne. And it
says this, you are storing upwrath for yourself for the day
of wrath. And what does thatmean? Well, for the unbeliever,
there's also personalcompensation. Remember this, if
you're a believer, you go to theBema. It's just going to be
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based on reward or loss ofreward. If you're an unbeliever,
you go to the great whitethrone, and your judgment will
be based upon degrees ofpunishment in hell. For
instance, storing up wrathagainst the day of wrath means
this put your sins into a bank.
And the scripture says that forevery person that is living,
only God knows the heart, mancan't judge this. Every time you
sin. It's like putting somemoney in the bank, it gains
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interest and it keeps growingbigger and bigger and bigger and
the day of judgment that will bebrought out before you if you're
an unbeliever. Okay, now, youdid a good job. I think
listening to me, I'll put thisover, just leave the lights off.
I'll we'll put another overheadon there in a second. Please,
let's do a couple of key pointsnow. Okay. All of eternity is
impacted by the way you live.
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You hear me?
All eternity is impacted by theway you live. So many people.
One of the biggest flaws in mosttheology today is thinking that
God rewards and punishes now.
And my friends, there is sometruth to that. But the main
reward, the main judgment willbe then on that day, the day of
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the Bema, or the Great WhiteThrone. You wonder why wicked
man could get away withwickedness for so long? Because
God knows their day is coming.
You want to know why believerswho have been unjustly treated,
and have had all kinds of badthings happen to them? How come
God allows that to happenbecause he knows there's a day
of reward coming. You see myfriends, you've got to see the
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impact theology of the Bema inthe Great White should have upon
your life, it should impacteverything you do, you should
think about it, you should liveas if the BBC were over you
casting a shadow over your life.
Now the dark shadow, but ashadow of direction and
encouragement to realize thatyou'll get an answer someday.
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So let's now consider this. Andthanks for your good attention.
Let's now consider the greatwhite throne judgment. And by
the way, we didn't get to theBema Seat in the first service,
which means we're not going toget to it now. But that's okay.
Because we're gonna have anextensive study just on the beam
on next Sunday. Okay, so lookhere. Let's go there. This is
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interesting, man. I think you'regonna love this. I've been
excited to preach this to you.
Go to Revelation 20 with me andlet's look now at the Great
White Throne Judgment that we'vehad that as introduction
revelation 20.
Let's look at verse 11 through15 and get your Bibles ready
(29:39):
because we're gonna be turningto some other places too. Let's
read about it. Here. It says inRevelation 20, verse 11. Then I
saw a great white throne. Oh,there was there's our definition
of it right there great whitethrone, and him who was seated
on earth and sky fled from hispresence. There was no place for
them awesomeness in other words,and I saw the dead grain small
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standing before the throne ofthe books were opened, another
book was opened, which is thebook of life. The dead were
judged according to what theyhad done as recorded in the
books. The sea eat up the deadthey were in it and death and
Hades gave up the dead, theywere in them, and each person
was judged according to what hehad done. Then death and Hades
were thrown into the lake offire. The lake of fire is the
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second death. If anyone's namewas not found written in the
book of life, he was thrown intothe lake of fire, you please
notice based on your works, itsays it judged your works, it
says. So right here, each personwas judged according to what he
had done, your works. Now,remember something at the Great
White Throne, people will bestanding there in their sins,
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Jesus Christ has not paid fortheir sins, they're standing
before a holy God. And nowthey're automatically gonna go
to hell because they're theGreat White Throne. But the one
thing I want you to notice it'sgoing to be a degree of
punishment that they willreceive. And some of you are
going, Wait a minute, I thoughtit was the same for everybody. I
remember being taught, oh, yeah,send us a sin. You know, once it
is done, Jason No, no, no, youon the reading your Bible very
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carefully. Because the Bibleclearly teaches there's degrees
of punishment in hell. And theBible clearly teaches one sin is
worse than another. Forinstance, notice the criterion
for non Christians. In otherwords, the punishment will be
based on the following. Here'sthree criterias. By the way,
we're not gonna have time to getthere today. But next week, you
are going to see 14 or 15criterias for reward or loss of
reward at the bmsc judgment.
(31:26):
This week, three criterias, fora person at the Great White
Throne Judgment for an unsavedperson, for instance, the amount
of truth known and rejected,please turn with me to Matthew
chapter 11. Go back to Matthewchapter 11 with me and your
text, and work hard. Please payattention to this, because this
is extremely interesting andimportant that we understand it.
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Matthew, chapter 11.
And it says, in Verse 20.
The following, please get thisthis is Jesus talking. Then
Jesus began to announce thecities in which most of his
(32:12):
miracles had been performed,because they do not repent,
won't you you corzan Woe to youBethsaida. If the miracles that
were performed in you had beenperformed in Tyre and Sidon,
they will have repented long agoand sackcloth and ashes. But I
tell you to please get verse 22.
It will be more bearable forTaiwan side Number Day of
Judgment then for you. Why?
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Because so much light had beengiven to those cities that have
that amount of light had beengiven to Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented.
So look at based upon the amountof truth known and rejected the
amount of miracles the amount oftruth given. Let's keep reading,
verse 23, and you compare him,will you be lifted up to the
skies? No, you will go down tothe depths. If the miracles that
(32:59):
were performed in you had beenperformed in Saddam, it would
have remained to this day. Nowhere's a little interesting
thought friends, also provingthis righteousness, turning and
responding to Truth bringsblessing in this life. You know
why? It stays off judgment ifSaddam would have had those
miracles done to these othercities that had done, they
wouldn't have been consumed withthe raging fire of the Lord,
(33:21):
they would have remained untilthis day. In other words, they
wouldn't have been judged theway Sodom and Gomorrah was
judged. So it reflects today toDon't forget. But also notice
verse 24. But I tell you that itwill be more bearable for Saddam
on the dam judgment than foryou. But most of my friends,
what we saw from sodomy,a god town full of homosexuals,
wicked people. And guess whathappens? He says it would be
(33:46):
more bearable for Saddam in theDay of Judgment. In other words,
there's two levels ofpunishment, you got to
understand clearly, there'slevels of punishment. Go back to
the 10th chapter, just onechapter and look on the to the
11th verse.
Look what it says.
Chapter 10 Verse 11, just goback one chapter, whatever town
or village you enter, search forsome more the person their
(34:06):
status house until you leavethat you enter the home, give it
to your greeting, if the homewas deserving, let your peace
rest on that is not let yourpeace returned to you. If anyone
will not welcome you or listento your words, what's that the
preaching of the Gospel, if theywill listen to your words, shake
the dust off your feet. When youleave that one return, I tell
you the truth it will be morebearable for sowing and Gomorrah
(34:27):
on the day of judgment for thattown. It's gonna be more
bearable for a group. And Sodomand Gomorrah as they stand
before God of the Great WhiteThrone. And people that had the
apostles go into their towns thegospel preached and they
rejected it.
So you see, clearly the amountof truth has been known, by the
way friends, that's why I wastold this was I was a little
boy, it would be much worse togo to health in the United
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States of America, that it wouldbe to go to hell from some of
the darkest jungles in Africathat have never heard the
gospel.
Because we have had like,permeated around this gospel
teaching radio magazines,Christian bookstores.
All around us. And it was likeshit everywhere. And the degree,
clearly, clearly, man isresponsible for the amount of
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truth and light given to himthat he rejects in the
scriptures. Now, another thingwas this, the kinds of sins you
commit, I bet you some of youdidn't believe this. I used to
not believe it. But it isclearly true that the kinds of
sins you commit, you're inMatthew 10, go to the next
bookmark and go to the 12chapter.
All the people who said, Oh, no,I thought that was the same for
(35:29):
everybody. I thought sin wassin. No, there are some sin that
is worse than other sin, thekinds of sins you commit. And
let me give you some referencesto this. It says in Mark chapter
12, starting with verse 38.
As he taught, Jesus said, and bythe way, he was coming right
from Jesus's mouth. Watch outfor the teachers of the law.
(35:53):
They like to walk around inflowing robes and be greeted in
marketplaces, and have the mostimportant seats in the
synagogues in places of honor atbanquets, they devour widows
houses, and for a show makelengthy prayers now, please get
this last part of verse 40. Suchmen will be punished most
severely.
(36:13):
In other words, one of the worstsins you can ever commit is that
of being a PhariseeI felt one of the reasons I say
to you, not because I'm afraidof losing my salvation, but
because I know how much Godhates it the sin that God seems
to hate if you look at whatJesus Christ said when He came
to earth is Pharisee ism. Andyou know what that is? External
religion only with a heart thatis wicked. What does he say?
(36:36):
Outwardly? You look likewhitewashed the house ago
whitewashed us, but inwardlyyour way I can't remember how it
goes. But the point is this. Theoutside of the cup looks nice,
but the inside of the cup iscorroded. You come over to my
house to give you something todrink. So Oh, yeah, you look at
there's a beautiful shiny cup.
You go thanks, that person. Whydon't you look in there just
maggots swimming around in it.
Okay, that's the point. If yougot my point. That's what God
(36:58):
sees God looks upon the heart.
And with the emphasis on theexternal, God absolutely hates
it. He says, such men will bepunished most severely. What
does that say there are rules ofpunishment based upon the kinds
of sins that you commit, youwant to see another reference
today, you're in Mark chapter12. Go back to Mark chapter
(37:18):
nine.
Go back to Mark chapter nine.
And look at this story. To showyou another illustration
of the kinds of sin you commitdepending gonna make a
difference in the Great WhiteThrone Judgment. Mark chapter
nine, verse 42. And if anyonecauses one of these little ones
who believe in me to sin, itwould be better for him to be
(37:40):
thrown into the sea with a largemillstone tied around his neck.
If your hand calls you sinKoloff, it's better for you to
analyze name that with two handsto go into hell, where the fire
never goes out. And if your footcauses you to sin cut off, it is
better for you that are likecrippled and have two feet and
be thrown to hell. And if youreye causes you to sin, pluck it
out. It's better for you toenter the kingdom of God with
one eye than have two eyes bethrown to Hell, where the warmth
(38:01):
does not die in the fire is notquenched. Everyone will be
salted with fire. Why don't weget the point verse 42. Anyone
who causes one of these littleones to send, believe me, who
believe in me to sin, it'd bebetter for him to throw into the
depths of the sea. I'm notexactly sure all of that is
applied here. But I will tellyou this, to cause little
children to sinis going to bring severe
judgment of God upon you.
(38:26):
tie that in with all the childabuse.
With all the wickedness that'sgoing on today, there's a severe
warning from our loving andgracious Lord, it would be
better for you to have amillstone tied about your neck.
The Old Testament says thingslike this, it would better be
for you never to have been born.
Now, friends, if this scaresyou, I may say this good. Maybe
(38:46):
that's good. Maybe for once wegot to get a little respect.
Maybe we should start to realizethat judgment is severe. Let me
make sure I've mentioned acouple of others Ephesians five,
three through seven andColossians, three, five through
six, say things like this.
So it's things like this, forthe idolatry, the drunkard, the
sexually immoral, and it gives alist of sins like that. It says
(39:08):
Let no one deceive you withempty words. For because of
these things, the wrath of Godis coming upon the sons of
disobedience.
Let's don't be fooled by all ofthe adultery and all of the
(39:29):
illegitimate perverted sexthat's going on and casually
talked about on TV and jokedabout and magazines and videos
and all the things that youcould possibly see around you.
Don't you be deceived? Don't letanyone deceive. You don't have
some antinomian coming your wayand say oh, God's God's grace.
It's okay. No, because of suchthings. God's wrath is coming.
(39:51):
In fact, my friends it's a shameto even speak of those things
which are done by them andsecret.
This is a call back to holinessfriends. It's a call back to
understand that God hates thisand it's right to hate it in
certain scenes are worse thanothers. Let me give you this
logic or justice tells us this.
This week down at the conferenceon Tuesday, I was down to help
(40:11):
him with the toddlers. And onTuesday, I went up to the Riley
towers with Doug Miller. DougMiller is a member of our
church. He lives the Rileytowers and went over to his
house to study and get somelunch and things like that. We
pulled onto a one way streetdowntown, I don't drive town
downtown a lot. We pulled onto aone way street. And we came up
to the stoplight. And, and wewere sitting there and there's
(40:34):
four rows across. And I was onthe outside of the front row.
And Doug was sitting theretalking, we've been stopped
about 20 seconds. And he wentlike this. He went the big line
of traffic behind us. He wentlike this. Yeah, the second
street to the right, you turn.
Well, when he went like this, Iwas not paying attention. I
thought he meant the lightturned green. So I went through
(40:55):
the light. Thing is I didn'teven know it. I wasn't even 20
yards to the light. And on thepole position on the front row
was a motorcycle policeman.
He pulled up behind me so fast.
I hadn't even got through theintersection, his lights were
spinning. And Doug realized thatI went through the red light was
turned around looking like this.
And we were in the jeep with thetop off, you know, so it looked
like some probably some smartaleck kids or something driving
(41:17):
there, you know? I thought Doug,what are you talking about the
cops going? Why would a cop inmy scene? Like why is he gonna
pull me over? Absolutely. Myintentions were as pure as they
could be. The only thing is Iwas guilty as all get out. You
see, the cop pulls me over. AndI'm gonna sort of I don't know
why I did that I surely didn'tmean to. And you know, he won't.
Yeah, you know, he's heard allthe stories, you know? $55
Guilty $35. Now, let me ask yousomething.
(41:43):
What do you think I deserve thator not?
I will tell you this. Myintention was pure. God knows
that. But yet I violated thelaw. So I got the penalty. And
obviously he said, If you wantto contest this, you can come to
court such that I go. There'snothing to contest. I ran the
red light even though I didn'tignorance. I was still guilty,
right? But this week in thepaper did you read about the man
(42:07):
34 years old, that sexuallymolested his two and a half year
old daughter so severely thatshe died in severe pain from an
eruption of her intestines.
And we actually saw the friends.
Let me let me ask you thisquestion. What would you do? If
you found out that I ran astoplight?
And was given a life sentencewith no chance of parole? And
(42:30):
that guy molested his daughterand she died and he got a $55?
Fine? What would you all do? Youwould all go downtown and you
say unjust?
Because we have a sense ofjustice. We're image bearers. We
all know there's right andwrong. And my point, my friends,
is this. The kinds of sin youcommit Adolf Hitler, Mussolini,
(42:54):
others, I can't name them allare going to get a worse degree
of punishment in hellthan others.
The number of sins you commit,in case you're wondering about
this, just to give you clearestevidence, I told you I told you,
we'd go there. Go to Romanschapter two. Look with me to
Verse five, would youclearly the Bible teaches this
(43:15):
too. But because of yourstubbornness, and your
unrepentant heart, you arestoring up wrath against
yourself for the day of God'swrath, storing up wrath. What's
that mean? It means this puttinginto a bank account. Here's the
sinner, the number of sins youcommit, yes, the number of sins
one commits, the Bible says it'slike a bank account when you
(43:38):
sin. As an unbeliever. You'restoring up wrath against them.
Let me give you anotherillustration. I ran the
stoplight quite innocently thisweek. And yet what happened?
What happens if I do that everyday this week and every day next
month and every day in August,what my license would be taken
away from me and eventually I'dgo to jail, because the number
of my sins start to add upagainst you even in our justice
system. So it is before Godstoring up wrath. People that
(44:01):
continue to sin, they store upwrath, unbelievers. Now I'm
talking about was we're talkingabout the great white throne
judgment until the day of wrath.
The last point I want you to seeon the Great White Throne is
this how to avoid the GreatWhite Throne Judgment? Well, let
me tell you, there's two ways toavoid the Great White Throne
Judgment. You know that?
(44:22):
The first way is this. Don'tdie.
If you don't die, you can avoidit. Okay, just a little humor.
Some of you went for it.
The second way to avoid theGreat White Throne Judgment is
this repent of your sins andbelieve in Jesus Christ as your
(44:42):
personal Savior because theBible says this, there is
therefore now no condemnation tothem that are in Christ Jesus.
There is no judgment from Godthat's going to bring
condemnation upon you, for themthat are in Christ Jesus.
Now I say all that you put thelights there, if you would put
(45:06):
the lights back on.
I say this to tell you I'm sortof glad we didn't get the Bema
Seat in the first service.
Because I easily we can go 45minutes to an hour next week on
the Bema Seat and just as I gaveyou the three criterion for the
great white throne and give you14 or 15 criterion for the Bema
Seat, but I want you to considera couple of things.
(45:28):
Daniel Webster said this.
The most important thought Iever had was that of my
individual responsibility toGod.
John Calvin said this, let noman flatter himself on the
ground that in the opinion ofmen, he is reckoned among the
most eminent master builders.
For as soon as the day breaks inhis whole work must go utterly
(45:53):
for nothing if not approved bythe Lord. One other man said
this.
Those are fools who depend onman's estimation so as to record
it enough to be approved by men.
For that only will the work havepraise and recompense when it
has stood the test of the day.
I want you turn one last place,I want you to see how the Bema
(46:15):
should affect your life. Thefact of judgment should affect
your life even though we haven'ttalked much about it. I want you
to see it. Go to Hebrews, the11th chapter and I want you to
see something in closing.
It's all I'm telling youfriends, you're going to be
amazed. It's everywhere.
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